The 9th European Lotteries Congress – Day Theme: Mission

The highlights of the third day of the Congress included the ceremony of granting European Lotteries Innovation Award, Advertising Awards and Sports Awards, Young Lions Prizes Ceremony, Responsible Gaming Certification Ceremony, speech delivered by Mr Martin Lindstrom – a prominent brand building expert – as well as the Closing Gala. Presentations given by other speakers and inspiring performances by Premium Partners were also popular among the participants of the Congress.
Keynote speaker Mr Martin Lindstrom, one of the world’s best branding experts and counsellor for many companies listed in the Fortune 100 list, talked about the methods for building and transforming brands, customer touchpoints and working on effective brand associations. The point of departure for building brands in the future will be the so-called Small Data, i.e. small sets of specific attributes produced based on observation of consumers, conversations and interactions with customers, and on understanding the mentality of the target group. Other speakers – Mr Piotr “Izak” Skowyrski (eSport caster), Mr Bartek Marszałek (Formula 1 Powerboat Racing driver sponsored by Totalizator Sportowy) and Mr Aki Järvinen (PhD, UK) – presented new inspirations for the lottery sector (in chronological order): “The Growth of eSport and its Potential for the Lottery Industry,” “Former World Champion – Speed Boating,” “What Lotteries can learn from gaming developers?”

The audience was enthused by the representatives of the Congress’s Premium Partners who hosted theme sessions. They were later accessible in the trade fair area on both storeys of ICE Congress Centre in Kraków. The first company to represent Premium Partners that day was NOVOMATIC Lottery Solutions GmbH, and their presentation was entitled “Live long and Prosper.” The speech about creating the culture of innovation in an organization was delivered by Mr Pall Palsson, Senior Director of Corporate Innovation and Strategy, and Ms Agnieszka Rylska, Marketing Manager. The subject was particularly interesting to those who are in search of answers to questions regarding the internal foundations of developing innovativeness within a company. Next Premium Partner – IGT – presented new sources of inspiration to the audience by giving a presentation entitled “MISSION Possible – Ensuring Consumer Interaction.” The message of the speech was clear – our activity towards satisfying the needs of our customers should be driven by the growing needs of consumer experience and convenience. Our customers already have experience in the digital and mobile world through use of apps and smartphones, but Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are becoming more and more popular. The fifth Premium Partner – Scientific Games Corporation, represented by Mr Christian Kometer, Managing Director, International Lottery Systems, and Mr Chris Coyle, gemIntelligence Business Development, focused on new IT system solutions that not only guarantee management effectiveness and efficiency, but also provide opportunities for engaging customers even more than ever, through the use of various devices and channels. The final session was delivered by the Semi Premium Partner of the Congress – Kambi – and it was entitled “The importance of Sports betting as a customer acquisition tool.” Kambi presentation was delivered by the Executive Director Lotteries, Mr Joni Hovi.

Responsible Gaming Certification Ceremony that concluded the afternoon part of that busy day was hosted personally by the President of the European Lotteries Association, Mr Hansjörg Höltkemeier. Höltkemeier granted certification diplomas to over ten member lotteries, including Totalizator Sportowy.

The awards in the 4th edition of the Young Lions program went to two talented groups of young professionals from the lottery sector. In the category of “Lottery Reality” the award went to Team ELevators for their presentation of an idea that lotteries can use to enter the mobile world using Augmented Reality – their project was entitled “DRONEit.” The award in the category of “Big Lottery Data” was granted to Team Mosaic for their Winning Moments gadget concept that could allow lotteries to use their player data in the context of building brand image. The jury decided that the best project submitted for the 2nd edition of the European Lotteries Innovation Award amongst dozens of applications was “Multiplier Masterpieces” created by CAMELOT. European Lotteries Advertising Awards went to a winner in three categories (Best Number Games, Best Instant Games and Best Sports Games Advertising) and the Grand Prix winner – Norsk Tipping. In the fourth category – Best Corporate Advertising – the “Jumping for Joy!” ad created by Staatliche Lotterieverwaltung Bayern was pronounced the winner. For the first time in the history of European Lotteries Congress a Sports Award was given for a project completed in sports that also had a positive social impact. The first prize went to Germany for the project involving a football team, ESV Neuaubing, whose role stretched far beyond just playing football, but also involved social integration tasks, providing support to immigrants and counteracting social exclusion.

The Closing Gala ceremony that took place on late hours at the ICE Congress Centre featured not only the final speech by the President of the European Lotteries Association, Mr Hansjörg Höltkemeier, but also words of gratitude by Höltkemeier and Mr Arjan van’t Veer, EL Secretary General, addressed to Totalizator Sportowy – the Polish host and co-organizer of the 9h European Lotteries Congress. The floor was also given to representatives of the Russian lotteries, JSC TD Stoloto, who invited the entire lottery sector to participate in the next, 10th edition of the European Lotteries Congress that will be held in Moscow in 2019.